Coffee House Press founder Allan Kornblum will reign for only a few more months as the Kay Sexton Award winner; it's time to nominate his successor. The Kay Sexton Award goes annually to a person or an organization that has been pivotal in contributing to Minnesota's book community. Previous winners have included St. Paul poet laureate Carol Connolly, SASE founder Carolyn Holbrook and Minnesota Historical Society acquisitions librarian Patrick Coleman.
Nominations can be made online here: www.startribune.com/a1873. And while you're there, scan the list of previous winners -- librarians, a governor, publishers, editors, teachers, community activists. The love and nurturing of books and reading runs strong and deep in Minnesota.
The deadline for nominations is Jan. 15 and the winner will be honored at the Minnesota Book Awards event on April 13.
Also ...
• "Class Backwards: Growing Up in Nordeast Minneapolis in the '40s and '50s" is a collection of remembrances by 54 people who grew up in that neighborhood. It was published by the nonprofit Edison Community and Sports Foundation.
• "Children of the Northlights," by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, has been published by the University of Minnesota Press. First published in 1935 by the Viking Press, the picture book has long been out of print. The D'Aulaires wrote a number of books about Scandinavian folklore, receiving both a Caldecott Medal and the Regina Medal for their work.
• William D. Waltz of St. Paul has won Cleveland State University's Poetry Center Open Competition for his forthcoming book, "Adventures in the Lost Interiors of America." Waltz is the author of the collection "Zoo Music," and his work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Black Warrior Review and elsewhere.
• Sports author Ross Bernstein of Edina has two books out with Triumph Books. "World Series Winners: What It Takes to Claim Baseball's Ultimate Prize" has a foreword by Paul Molitor. It contains quotes from everyone from Juan Berenguer (remember him?) to Curt Schilling. "Wearing the C: Leadership Secrets of Hockey's Greatest Captains" is also made up primarily of short interviews, this time with Neal Broten, Lou Nanne, Brett Hull and other hockey players so famous even I have heard of them. (And many I haven't, too.)
